Electric wire-terminal spring clips



Sept. 5, 1967 J. BALINT ELECTRIC WIRE-TERMINAL SPRING cups 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 23, 1967 D INVENTOR. JOH/V BA L //V T F/' are 5 BY 23 g ATTORNEY Sept. 5, 1967 J BAUNT 3,340,497

ELECTRIC WIRE-TERMINAL SPRING CLIPS Filed Feb. 23, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 3 Figure 7 F igure 8 Figure INVENTOR JOHN EAL /NT 17; ia 23W ,0 1W

ATTORNEY United States Patent Cfitice 3,340,497 Patented Sept. 5, 1967 3,340,497 ELECTRIC WIRE-TERMINAL SPRING CLIPS John Balint, Langhorne Manor, Pa., assignor to George K. Garrett Company, a division of MSL Industries, Inc., Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Minnesota Filed Feb. 23, 1967, Ser. No. 617,902 12 Claims. (Cl. 339-217) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE In a panel-mounted snap-in type electric wire-terminal spring-clip, opposed pairs of flat spring-arms having retainers thereon at a right angle thereto.

The present invention relates to a snap-in type electric wire-terminal or wire-connector spring-clip for television receiving sets, radio receiving sets, phonographs, tape recorders and other electric appliances and also relates to like nonelectric anchoring devices adapted to be secured to a generally thin insulating panel of hard fibre board, plastic and the like forming a part of such television receiving sets, radio receiver or other electric appliance or to other panels, by being snapped into a small square (or otherwise shaped) hole in such panel and being thereby firmly secured to such panel, and adapted to have one or more electrically-conductive wires fastened to a portion thereof on one side of the mounting-panel, as by being soldered thereto or by being detachably connected thereto by a slip-on type of sleeve-like connector telescoped onto a tongue-like connector-receiving portion of the clip, and adapted to have one or more wires secured thereto on the opposite side of the mounting-panel by means of a headed terminal screw threaded into a central body portion of the clip or by such sleeve-like connector and connector-receiving tongue extending outwardly from the central body portion of the clip and adapted to have other devices anchored thereto.

One of the object of the present invention is to provide such wire-terminal or wire-connector clip, on which can be mounted to a panel with minimum effort, without any special tools, and with maximum speed and facility, and which will be securely mounted to the panel.

The clip of the embodiment of my invention shown in FIGURES 1 to and 11 is so constructed that it can be pushed out of the mounting-hold in the panel in which it has been mounted, but only with the application of such substantial force as to give clip adequate security against accidental dislodgement.

The clip of the embodiment of my invention shown in FIGURES 6 to is so constructed as not to be removable from the panel (to which it has been secured) by an axial force applied to the clip.

In the accompanying drawings like reference characters indicate like parts.

FIGURE 1 represents a much enlarged perspective view of the first-mentioned embodiment of the present invention, showing the clip mounted to a panel of fibre board, plastic or the like forming a part of a television receiving set, or radio receiver or other radio or electrical appliance;-this view being about 3 /2 to 4 times actual size.

FIGURE 2 represents a view generally on line 2-2 of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 represents an elevational view of the same clip viewed at a right angle to the plane of the juxtaposed locking-ears 23.

FIGURE 4 represents elevational view of the same clip viewed at a right angle to the view shown in FIG- URE 3, namely, viewed parallel to the planes of the juxtaposed locking-ears thereof.

. 3 /2 to 4 times actual size.

FIGURE 7 represents a view taken generally on line 7-7 of FIGURE 6.

FIGURE 8 represent an elevational view of the clip shown in FIGURES 6 and 7, viewed at a right angle to the planes of the pairs of juxtaposed locking-ears 24 thereof.

FIGURE 9 represents an elevational view of the same clip viewed at a right angle to that of FIGURE 8, namely, viewed parallel to the planes of the pairs of juxtaposed locking-ears thereof.

FIGURE 10 represents a top shown in FIGURES 6 to 9.

FIGURE 11 represents a perspective view of the clip shown in FIGURES 1 to 5 (just slightly larger than actual size) shown partly pushed into the square mounting hole in the panel.

In the accompanying drawings, the reference-numeral 1 designates the aforementioned thin mounting panel of hard fibre board, plastic or the like, in which or to which the clip of the present invention is mounted as hereinafter described. The panel 1 is generally the back closure panel of the television set or the radio set or is a panel mounted to the aforementioned closure panel of the television or radio receiver. Such closure panel is generally relatively thin as for instance a sixteenth of an inch to an eighth of an inch, more or less. However, clip-mounting panel may also be fastened directly to the cabinet which contains the television or radio receiver or other radio or electrical appliance or may be fastened to the chassis thereof. Therefore, the fragmentary panel 1 in the accompanying drawings is intended to represent the back closure panel of such television or radio receiver or other appliance, and is also intended to represent the separate small panel fastended to such closure panel or fastened to the cabinet or to the chassis of the television or radio receiver or other radio or electrical appliance.

The panel 1 is provided with a square hole 2 of suitable size with relation to the clip designated generally by the numeral 3, as will be apparent from the following description and accompanying drawings.

The clip 3 is formed of a thin sheet of annealed spring steel (or other springy sheet-metal) by stamping and shearing and bending, so that all parts thereof are inteplan view of the clip gral with each other. If made of annealed spring steel, it

is thereafter hardened by heating and quenching to a suitable spring-hardness, and is thereafter plated for greater electrical conductivity, with zinc, cadmium or other plat ing metal.

' The clip 3 includes a central body portion 4 having a central hole 5 therethrough. A generally annular portion 6 of the body 4, surrounding the hole 5, is dished in Wardly in a generally helical formation, with a slit 01 slot 7 therein to separate the high and low ends of such helical formation. This helical formation conforms gen erally to the pitch of the thread fo the headed screw 8, which is thereafter threaded thereinto; the innermost periphery of such helical formation 6 constituting a single turn internal thread.

A pair of parallel and juxtaposed hole-entering legs 9 are bent inwardly or downwardly from central body portion 4 of the clip, along the parallel edges or boundaries 10 thereof, as indicated in FIGURES l, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10.

The width of the hole-entering legs 9 is generally the same as the width of the central body portion 4 along the edges or boundaries 10 thereof.

4-the retainer-tabs 13 being fully co-planar with the,

central body portion 4. By reason of the width of 14 thereof, these retainer-tabs 13 are relatively rigid in relation to the central body portion 4.

v In the embodiment shown in FIGURES 6 to 10, inclusive, the retainer-tabs are designated by the reference numeral 15, and these retainer-tabs 15 are relatively narrow, namely of a width 16 which is more or less of the order of one-third width (the same direction) of the central portion 4-and these retainer-tabs 15 being longer than the retainer-tabs 13, and are bent downwardly at a slight angle in relation to the plane of the central body portion 4, as indicated in FIGURES 9 and 8.

By the greater length and lesser width and the initial downward inclination thereof, the retainer-tabs 15 are made sufficiently resilient so that when the clip 3 shown in FIGURES 6 to is pressed into the hole ,2 (in the direction of the arrow 27 shown in FIGURE 7) the retainer-tabs will be deflected upwardly or outwardly so as to lie more or less flatly against the outer surface of the panel 1.

Each of the hole-entering legs 9 carries a pair of juxtaposed spring-arms 17 formed integrally therewith along the vertical edge-Zones thereof, by longitudinal sheer-lines 18 and 19 and by holes 20 at the lower ends of the sheerlines 19, to form the narrowed or weakened resilient portions 21 of the's-pring-arms 17 through which the spring-arms are connected to the lower ends of the holeentering legs 9.

vInner clip-retainers in the form of flat clip-securing ears or locking-ears 23 and 24 are bent outwardly from the spring-arms 17 along the outer edges 22 thereof, and are disposed at a right angle to the plane of said springarms. In the embodiment illustrated in FIGURES 1 to 5, inclusive, these inner flat locking-ears are designated by the numeral 23, while in the embodiment illustrated in FIGURES 6 to 10, inclusive, these lockin -ears are designated by the numeral 24.

In both embodiments, the lower or inwardly facing edges of the locking-ears (23 and 24) are inclined at an'acute angle to the plane of spring-arms 17, as illustrated particularly in FIGURES 3 and 8, such inclined edges 25 serving as cams to deflect the spring-arms 17 inwardly (towards each other) as the clip 3 is pushed into the hole 2 in the direction of the arrow 27 the inclined edges 25 of the locking-ears 23 and 24) serving as cams against the juxtaposed edges of the hole 2 in the panel 1.

The upper or outwardly facing edges of the lockingears are different in the two embodiments of the clip shown in FIGURES 1 to 5, on the one hand, and shown in FIGURES 6 to 10, on the other hand.

In the embodiment of the clip illustrated in FIGURES 1 to 5, inclusive, the upper or outwardly facing edge 28 of each fo the locking-ears 23 is inclined with respect to the plane of the spring-arm 17 as indicated particularly in FIGURES 2 and 3. In the embodiment shown in these figures, the includedangle 29 is of the order of 46 (more or less). By reason of this inclination of the upper or outwardly facing edges 28 of locking-ears 23, the panel 1 is firmly wedged between the outer relatively rigid retainer-tabs 13 and the inclined edges 28 of the locking-ears 23, as indicated particularly in FIGURE 4. Thus, as the spring-arms 17 return from their inwardly flexed positions shown in dotted lines shown in FIGURE 3 to or towards their outer positions shown generally in solid lines in FIGURE 3, the inclined edges 28 of the locking-ears engage and bear against the corner edges 30 of the hole 2 in the panel 1, and thereby force the panel 1 against the retainer tabs 13 or (conversely) draw the clip 3 inwardly in relation to the panel 1 until the retainer-tabs 13 bear firmly against the outer surface of the panel 1.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIGURES 6 to 10, inclusive the upper or outwardly facing edges 32 of the locking-ears 24 are generally at a right angle to the plane of the spring-arms 17. In this embodiment, the distance 33 between the upper edge 32 and the tip of the downwardly inclined outer retainer-tab 15 is slightly less than the thickness of the panel 1. In this embodiment the clip 3 is pushed into the hole 2 (in the direction of the arrow 27) with sufficient force exerted at the end of the insertion movement to deflect the outer retainer tabs 15 in an outward direction so as to bring them more nearly into parallelism with or into the plane of the central body portion 4 of the clip, until the upper or outwardly facing edges 32 of the lockingears 24 are just beneath the inner face or surface 34 of the panel; whereupon the springarms 17 return from their inwardly deflected positions shown in dotted lines of FIGURE 8 to their outward positions shown in solid lines in said figure, and the outer retainer-tabs 17 bear resiliently against the outer surface of the panel 1 so as to draw the edges 32 of the lockingears 24 firmly against the inner surface of the panel 1, thereby firmly retaining the clip 3 in relation to the panel 1.

After the screw 8 has been threaded into the hole 5, the inner end thereof is staked or upset, as at 35, thereby to prevent the full withdrawal of the screw from the hole.

The inner lead wire or wires 36 may be threaded through one or the other of the holes 20 in the legs 19, and soldered to said legs. The outer lead wire 37 (as, for instance, the antenna wire) may be fastened between the head 39 of the screw 8 and the central body portion 4 of the clipeither directly or through the conventional bifurcated wire-terminal 40 soldered or otherwise aflixed to the end of the wire 37.

A connector-prong 41 may be provided on one or both of the legs 9 for the reception of a frictionally-retained sleeve-like or socket-like slip-on wire-connector 43. External connector prongs 42 may also be provided, extending outwardly of the clip 3, to which the antenna Wire or other external wire may be detachably connected by means of a like slip-on type of a wire-connector 43.

The sheet-metal on which the clip 3 is formed is relatively thin, as, for instance of the order of 0.017, more or less. Therefore, the panel-engaging edges 28 of the locking-ears 23 are sufiiciently thin to enable them to bite into the corner-edges 30 of the hole 2 in the panel 1, as indicated in FIGURES 2 and 3. This slight bite of the edge 28 into the corner-edge 30 of the hole 2, further stabilizes the clip 3 in relation to panel 1.

Having shown and described embodiments of the invention, the following is claimed:

1. In a generally U-shaped electric wire-connector terminal-clip formed of a single piece of relatively thin spring sheet-metal, adapted to be operatively secured to a relatively thin and generally form-retaining insulating panel by having its two legs inserted into a mounting-hole in such panel, such clip having a central body portion constituting the base of the U and having two generally parallel juxtaposed hole-entering legs bent downwardly from said central body portion along generally parallel spacedapart boundaries thereof generally coincident with said fold-lines and constituting the two legs of the U and having opposite external retainer-tabs extending laterally from opposite edges of said central body portion which are intermediate the aforementioned fold-line edges of said central body portion, the improvement which includes a generally flat spring-arm carried by each of said legs along a longitudinal edge thereof and generally co-planar therewith in their unsprung condition, withsaid spring-arms being resiliently connected with said legs at the ends of the spring-arms farthest from said central body portion, and a locking-ear formed integrally with each of said spring-arms along the outer longitudinal edge thereof and disposed in a plane transverse to the plane of its springarm, each of said locking-ears having a lower camming edge inclined with respect to the spring-arm and each of said locking-ears having an upper panel-engaging edge facing generally in the direction of the aforementioned central body portion of the clip.

2. An electric wire-connector terminal-clip according to claim 1, in which the upper panel-engaging edges of the locking-ears are inclined with respect to their respective spring-arms.

3. An electric wire-connector terminal-clip according to claim 1, in which the upper panel-engaging edges of the locking-ears are generally at a right angle to their respective spring-arms and in which the external retainer-lugs are resilient and are bent downwardly in their unsprung condition in the direction of the locking ears.

4. An electric wire-connector terminal-clip according to claim 1, in which the included angles between the camming-edges of the locking-ears and their respective springarms is acute.

5. An electric wire-connector terminal-clip according to claim 1, in which the included angles between the camming-edges of the locking-ears and their respective springarms is less than 45.

6. An electric wire-connector terminal-clip according to claim 1, in which each of the hole-entering legs has two spring-armsone along each of the two longitudinal edges thereof.

7. In a sheet-metal anchor device adapted to be operatively secured to a panel by being snapped into a mounting-hole in such panel, which anchor device has a central body portion, two spaced-apart and juxtaposed hole-entering legs bent downwardly from said central body portion along fold-lines coincident with generally parallel spacedapart boundaries thereof, opposite external retainer-tabs extending laterally from opposite edges of said central body portion intermediate the aforementioned fold-line boundaries thereof, the improvement which includes a generally flat spring-arm carried by each of said legs along longitudinal edges thereof and resiliently connected therewith at the ends thereof farthest from said central body portion, an arm-camming and panel-engaging ear formed integrally with each of said spring-arms and disposed in a plane transverse to the plane of the spring-arm, each of said ears having a lower camming edge inclined with respect to the spring-arm and an upper panel-engaging edge facing generally in the direction of said external retainertabs and spaced therefrom at a distance generally corresponding to the thickness of the panel to which the anchor device is to be secured.

8. A sheet-metal anchor device according to claim 7, in which the upper panel-engaging edges of the ears are inclined with respect to their respective spring-arms.

9. A sheet-metal anchor device according to claim 7, in which the upper panel-engaging edges of the ears are generally at a right angle to their respective spring-arms and in which the external retainer-tabs are resilient and are bent downwardly in their unsprung condition in the direction of the ears.

10. A sheet-metal anchor device according to claim 7, in which the included angles between the camming-edges of'the ears and their respective spring-arms is acute.

11. A sheet-metal anchor device according to claim 7,

in which the included angles between the camming-edges of the ears and their respective spring-arms is less than 12. A sheet-metal anchor device according to claim 7, in which each hole-entering leg has two spring-arms, one along each of its longitudinal edges.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,664,132 12/53 Leverte 339-128 2,730,690 1/56 Harasek 339216 2,869,107 1/59 Engel 339-256 3,079,581 2/63 Klumpp 339-128 OTHER 7 REFERENCES Tele-Tech Electronic Industries, February 1956, page 33. (Copy in class 339/128.)

MARVIN A. CHAMPION, Primary Examiner. R. S. STROBEL, Assistant Examiner. 

